


A Very Merry Christmas Eve.

by ThePoetess



Category: ALCOTT Louisa May - Works, Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-07 13:09:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5457599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePoetess/pseuds/ThePoetess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Christmas Story centering around Beth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Surprise for Beth.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Everyone... For the Holidays.](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Everyone...+For+the+Holidays.).



> I made a Beth March story... Because I can, ha ha!  
> No, I just did it because she is my favorite character.

Beth lay stiffly in bed.  
Her muscles ached from months of non-use and the sickness that had plagued her.  
Tear tracks and light brown straggly curls framed her face.  
Dark news had greeted her when she awoke. She hadn't meant to hear it, hadn't wanted to, never asked to hear it, but she had.  
She had woken in a dream state to hear her mother and dear sister Jo speaking fearfully in hushed voices.  
The Hummel's oldest child, Fredric Hummel, had died of the same sickness that had plagued Beth herself.  
He had fought for some time then in his weakened state he had fallen deeper into the sickness that soon claimed him.  
He had died yesterday.

It had come as no shock, Beth had overheard Marmee and the doctor speaking in low voices about the whole desperate plight of the Hummels.  
The door opened and three figures came falling through the door, turning Beth's mind away from thoughts of the Hummels and sickness.

Jo's short hair was wild about her face as she, Amy, and a very pleased Teddy, tumbled into the room, followed closely by Meg.  
Beth gave a weak smile as the rowdy troop sobered and filed into a ragged line at the foot of her bed, mismatched theater props and costumes dangling in their arms.  
Teddy looked no worse for wear, though ruffled and tattered; Meg looked the only pristine one out of the bunch; Amy looked awfully small, though swamped in her long gown; but it was Jo, with her hair in a disheveled mess, wearing the offhand smile she wore when she wanted to hide something, that drew Beth's instant attention.

"What i-s it Jo? You look so strange, like angels, are you alright Jo? You are frightening me. Is everyone well?" Jo smiled then laughed, making Teddy smile lovingly at her and come to Beth's bedside.  
He bent down and touched her hand "Merry Christmas Beth."

Beth smiled slowly "merry Christmas Teddy, Jo, Amy, Meg, merry Christmas my dearest friends."


	2. The Christmas spirit.

Fred Vaughn, kept much amused by Mr. Brookes and old Mr. Lawrence debating about something of not much consequences to Fredrick himself, and also kept much amused by the small amount of eggnog in his cordial glass, stood with his back to the fireplace, waiting in anticipation for the moment when he would see Beth once more. He hoped she would be much improved since his last visit. He hoped she would survive this sickness, because, if she did... he pushed the alternative from his mind as the conversation turned to the Hummels. "Three children dead." "Poor souls, yesterday another one," "The oldest son." Holding carefully onto Beth, Meg and Marmee crept, one step at a time, down the stairs, with a weak yet smiling Beth between them. She smiled shyly at the arranged group downstairs. Everyone became very silent. Jo soon broke the spell "Merry Christmas Bethy." Beth smiled, a weak smile that made her face hurt with pain, she managed a broken "Merry Christmas" in response as Marmee and Meg helped her onto the first floor. Fred Vaughn's heart leapt at sight of her. Drastically altered, this frightened, waif like spirit he saw before him was not Beth, it couldn't be. His hands, held behind his back stroked the old red wood of the new piano as they hid the sight from Beth. Oh, she would be rather pleased. He was right. When they unveiled it to her she was beside herself and the tears soon shone on the palid expanse of her face. They sat her at the piano stool and she gingerly touched the worn keys of the piano with loving care, before she started to play. "Father!" Mr. Robert March stood in the doorway, framed by brilliant light, holding himself up with crutches as John Brooke helped him into the room. Beth ran shakily to her father and launched herself, with strength she had not thought she possessed into his arms, yelling happily "Father!" Her father was home and safe! Her mother was home! Everything was okay and everything would be, since they were to be together again. Nothing would happen, she would become strong once more. She would play her piano, everything at that moment for Beth March was peaches and cream, perfect. Nothing bad would ever happen again. Beth's Christmas had been the best she had ever had. The caroling began again and Beth's sweet voice rang out all the clearer. 


	3. The Days to come.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth's future looks increasingly bright.  
> Meg finds herself quite content with married life. Jo finds herself becoming attached to Fredric Bhaer. Amy goes to Paris and finds herself almost surely engaged to Fredrick Vaughn.

"When will Jo return? It has been so long since I have seen her, it feels as if it has been years," Meg felt a tender tug at her heart as she stopped rolling out bread dough, wiped flour from her hands, and found her dejected sister's pale face, "Soon love, soon Bethy," "and Amy," Beth laid her head against the rough wood of the table and groaned involuntarily as the pain made her shrink into herself. "Beth?" Meg put a steadying hand on her sister's shaking shoulder "Beth?" Beth took a shallow breath "Don't worry yourself Meg, I'm very fine, I promise," standing she moved towards the parlor "I think I'll play now, music will do me good, Meg." She collapsed to the ground!

Josephine March smiled at the surly professor before her "Fritz?" He stroked down his newly forming dark beard and nodded "Yes?" Suddenly all warmth drained from Jo's body and she shivered by the warm fire. Fritz saw and threw a woolen blanket over her before taking her hands in his. 

"I told you, Aunt March, I have no intention of marrying Fredrick Vaughn. None whatsoever. I would rather die an old maid than marry a man who I find lacking in - Well." Fred Vaughn made his appearance at that very moment and bent to kiss Amy's hand before he straightened and asked slowly "I trust you are well? Have you heard anything from home? All well? Your sister Meg? -Beth?" He tried for a certain nonchalant attitude, but failed, miserably at pretending to make small talk. Amy shrugged, not really caring "Meg is pregnant, Beth is growing in health everyday. Not much to report really. Aunt March, I think I will take a walk, it will do me much good I believe." With that she walked away without a goodbye to Fred who scowled "What have I done?" He mused "Was it something I said?" He was glad beyond belief to hear good news about Beth. Two days later, however, the letter came. Addressed to Miss Amelia March. The letter bore bad news, tidings of poor health. Beth had grown ill once more. 


	4. Beth and Jo.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Beth and Jo chapter with occasional appearances by Meg or Marmee.

When Jo comes home from New York, she is shocked by how much sicker Beth seems. At first Jo forgets about Beth's illness because she's caught up with Laurie's proposal, but after Laurie leaves she notices again. "What is it Jo? You look so sad," Beth March lay in the bright warm sand on the seashore. Jo looked up at her sister and tried to smile "Nothing Bethy, it is nothing." Two weeks by the sea had bleached the leftover color from Beth's face. Jo knew her sister was dying. Meg knew it too, but still held tight to a dying hope. Nineteen is to young to die. Yet twenty and twenty-two came and went and now Beth was twenty-three and everything seemed fine. She seemed to be recovered, in reality though she was barely hanging on.

Beth knew she was dying.  
Jo knew as well. "Oh Jo, what will you do without me?" Beth wondered as she sent Jo off at the train station as Jo left once again for her life in New York.

Fred Vaughn helped himself to the newly arrived letter for Amy as he sat in the little French parlor. Choking on his expensive cordial he stood as Amy March, looking haggard and bereaved entered and sunk solemnly into a hardbacked chair, it was not like Amy March to look so solemn. "Beth, our dear Bethy is gone. Why couldn't I have been an angel like her? I've always been so very unhappy with my state in life, yet she never worried or anything. Why couldn't I have been a little more of an angel like our dear Beth?"

That night Fred drew down the sheets of his bed to slip between the covers and fall fast asleep as usual, at the punctual time of nine. Instead he sat by the dying fire and cried for the young angel he had secretly and earnestly loved. How could god be so very cruel? It was Beth March for gods sake, sweet, kind, shy, little, Beth, who's sweet smile he would never forget for as long as he lived. He threw his empty cordial glass into the dying embers and cried until his eyes stung and his voice was hoarse and raw. Beth March, he'd been stupid to think that she could ever have been his, stupid to think that, the door opened a crack, creaking eerily into the night atmosphere and gloomy mood. The older maid, Martha, looked in slowly and said, slightly taken aback by the scene, "Begun your pardon Sir, a letter just arrived for you, from a miss Elizabeth March." She handed it over and as quickly as she had come she left. The letter lay in Fred's hand and with a shaking hand he opened it.


	5. What Never Was.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alls Well That Ends Well. 
> 
> Amy and Laurie are married and Jo finds herself to be in love with Fredric Bhaer. Fred Vaughn tries to find peace. Meg is perfectly pleased. An angel is born to Amy and Laurie.

A year after Beth died, two weddings took place, the flowers bloomed as usual and a child was born to mr. and miss Theodore Laurence. The child, an only child was named Bess, a nickname short for Elizabeth. Amy doted on her daughter and was perfectly contented to settle down into the wifely routine, Meg and John welcomed a third child who they named Josephine, after her high strung aunt Jo, Meg, to make a small note on her behalf, was perfectly pleased. Jo herself eventually married her mr. Bhaer and started a school. Two children were soon to make their appearances for the Bhaers. As for Fred Vaughn he stayed a bachelor, got average honours in College, and settled into a life of accounting. Now and then he thought back upon what could have been, but what never was and he cried bitter tears over this. He visited Beth's grave often and never forgot her sweet smile and the beautiful sound of her voice. It was true that Fredrick Vaughn had fallen in love and it could be said that he was still in love at the time of his death some ten years later.


End file.
